NCECA 2009

This past week in Phoenix, AZ, the 43 Annual Conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) was held. In conjunction with the conference, many of the galleries, museums, and universities in Phoenix and the surrounding towns hosted ceramic exhibitions. I was there as a representative of the Appalachian Center for Craft. Vince Pitelka, head of ceramics, and I sat at the table in the Exhibitor's Hall passing out pamphlets and workshop catalogs, seeing old friends, and making new ones. I did manage to sit in on a few panel discussions on installation art and promoting your work on Friday afternoon. In the evenings, I was able to see a few exhibits, have dinner with friends, and walk around downtown Phoenix. For more information on this, past, and future NCECAs visit www.nceca.net.

Dogwood Arts Festival Gala and Awards Ceremony

Thursday evening Meredith Lewis and I attended the Dogwood Arts Festival Gala and Awards Ceremony for the Regional Juried Fine Arts Exhibition in Knoxville, TN.  She and I both had two pieces juried into the Dogwood Arts Festival Regional Fine Arts Exhibit. We had a fine time at the Gala partaking of the yummy hors d'oeuvres, gourmet chocolates, wine, and dancing.  In addition to the party, the Dogwood Arts Festival along with ORNL gave out five awards.  First place went to "Quote",  www.quotemusic.net a collaborative effort of music and visual art, second to Crystal Wagner, www.crystalwagner.com, a printmaker/sculptor, third to me, and two honorable mentions.  The photos above are of the first through third award winners with juror, dancing after the awards, and finally my two pieces in the exhibit.

Celebration 2009

Today was the 11th Annual Appalachian Center for Craft Celebration.  We had food, music, demonstrations in all the studios, and an area for kids crafts.  I worked the Build a Bowl booth with students from the Craft Center and volunteers from the high school in Monterey, TN. They were a huge help wrangling all the kids that came to make bowls.  All the bowls, approximately 300, will be donated to the Cookin' on the Square event in October to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.  

Art Comes to School

For the last month, Rob Harvey, a potter from Dowelltown, TN, and I have been participating in the Art Comes to Schools program which is a joint effort between the Appalachian Center for Craft, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and three area schools. The purpose of this program is to bring professional artists working in fibers, clay, and metals to rural schools and have students participate in hands on projects that culminate in an exhibition of their works. Rob and I taught the clay portion to fifth graders, middle schoolers, and high schoolers. We visited each school twice. On the first visit we had them create masks using slabs, newspaper, and most of all their imaginations. The second visit involved finishing the bisque masks with paint, feathers, beads, and other embellishments. In addition to the hands on approach, we taught them a little about the history and use of masks. I think some of the students, surprised themselves with their creativity. All in all, it was very rewarding working with the students and teachers. The pictures above are from our visit to Gordonsville, TN. They are in order from top to bottom: Rob working with several students, the bisque masks, students finishing the surfaces with art teacher Jenny Ford, and finally, a few of the end products.

Krueger Workshop

The pictures above are from the hand building demonstration workshop at Krueger Pottery, www.kruegerpottery.com/, I taught on Valentine's. It was a success! They had so many people register for the workshop, they had to find an alternative venue. This made me nervous, thinking, "How many?" Webster University's ceramics department was kind enough to lend them the space. The participants were a wonderful crowd of enthusiasts, hobbyists, and lifers. They asked great questions, and were responsive to my ideas and stories. I want to send a big THANK YOU to Ryan and Aimee Rich for having me in to teach, and Jeri Au, head of ceramics at Webster, for donating the ceramics studio. It was a blast!

JFH Studio

Family Dinner, will be at JFH Studio in New Haven, MO from February 9-28th. While I was doing the residency at East Central College, I also had an opening reception in New Haven. JFH Studio is a great intimate space to have a show with large windows facing main street. I was pleasantly surprised with how many students and artists from the area attended. I had a lovely time.

East Central College Installation Residency

From February 10-13, the art students at East Central College in Union, MO and I were busy creating an installation to transform a portion of their hallway. One of the tenets was to use materials that are readily available and inexpensive, such as kraft paper, charcoal, packaging tape, tracing and tissue paper, and paint. The other was to have the viewer become a participant in the space/installation changing their experience of walking down a hallway. The result is the picture above. They were a great group of students and faculty who worked tirelessly and enthusiastically for two and a half days. Best of all, we had wonderful critical discussions about design and installation art. Furthermore, we created a work of art that engaged the various departments on campus. Thank you for the hard work, camaraderie, and the willingness to embrace the unknown. I had a great time. For more pictures of the creation process you can visit my flickr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/8158115@N05/sets/72157613868422322/.